Yesterday, ONE members in 16 states launched a campaign to get PEPFAR going in the Senate. PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) is America’s primary vehicle for working with countries in the developing world to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB. In its first five years, PEPFAR has saved millions of lives, and now it’s up for reauthorization for five years and $50 billion dollars, a substantial increase in America’s commitment to battling these deadly, but treatable diseases. Unfortunately, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) and six other senators are blocking all action on the bill. Senators Richard Lugar (R-IN) and John Sununu (R-NH) have written an urgent letter seen below at the bottom of this post) to the Senate Majority and Minority Leaders, asking them to do whatever it takes to get PEPFAR reauthorization to the floor of the senate.

Coburn’s concerns should be debated out in the open, not hidden behind a procedural block. There is a now a serious chance that PEPFAR reauthorization won’t happen until next year. Millions of people across the developing world can’t wait that long. The challenge to us is to convince key senators to sign that letter and show that there is strong, bipartisan support for reauthorizing PEPFAR this year, and continuing America’s commitment to moral leadership in the fight against global AIDS.

Live in Texas, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Utah, Mississippi, Wyoming, Georgia, Iowa, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Minnesota, Virginia or Missouri? We need you to write to your senator or senators and ask them to sign the Lugar-Sununu letter and get PEPFAR going: http://www.one.org/pepfarletter

If you’re not in one of those states, you can still ask your senators to co-sponsor PEPFAR here: http://www.one.org/pepfarsenate/

Make sure to follow our progress on the PEPFAR Co-Sponsor Senatometer

You also learn more about PEPFER here: http://www.one.org/pepfar

April 30, 2008

The Honorable Harry Reid
Majority Leader
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Minority Leader
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Mr. Majority Leader and Mr. Minority Leader:

We are writing to urge you to act expeditiously in scheduling floor time for the consideration of S. 2731, the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008.

As you know, the programs the Act would reauthorize — the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) and tuberculosis programs — have had an enormously positive effect in combating these diseases in Africa and throughout the developing world. PEPFAR is on schedule to achieve its topline goals of supporting treatment for 2 million AIDS patients with life-saving antiretroviral therapies, preventing the transmission of 7 million new cases of the disease, and supporting care for 10 million people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, including orphans and vulnerable children. Through its multilateral efforts, the U.S. will have also supported the distribution of 46 million mosquito bed nets to protect families from malaria.

Since its inception, PEPFAR has enjoyed broad bipartisan support and strong cooperation between the Executive and Legislative branches. PEPFAR also has served as a powerful demonstration of U.S. leadership and compassion throughout the world. As the President witnessed during his recent trip to Africa, U.S. investments in PEPFAR are paying major dividends both by creating a more positive global perception of the United States and by bringing stability and hope to strategic regions across the globe.

By passing this legislation in the next few weeks, we will enable the President to take this commitment to the G-8 meeting in Japan in early July and to use it to leverage additional commitments from our international partners. Moreover, we need to act now in order to send a clear message to PEPFAR recipients that the United States is fully committed to continuing the success of this program and to expanding our efforts to fight the pandemics of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Thank you for your consideration, and we hope that you will act swiftly to bring this critically important piece of legislation to the floor.

Sincerely,

Senator Richard Lugar
Senator John Sununu
Senator Elizabeth Dole
Senator Gordon Smith
Senator Bob Corker
Senator Chuck Hagel

-Aaron Banks, ONE.org

Update: We’re now up to 14 signers to the letter.

Senator Richard Lugar
Senator John Sununu
Senator Elizabeth Dole
Senator Gordon Smith
Senator Bob Corker
Senator Chuck Hagel
Senator Thad Cochran
Senator Mel Martinez
Senator Orrin Hatch
Senator John Warner
Senator Susan Collins
Senator Olympia Snowe
Senator Arlen Specter
Senator Norm Coleman

This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 6:37 pm and is filed under Sen. Richard Lugar, PEPFAR2008, ONE, Sen. John Sununu, PEPFAR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.